Using data gathered from students attending Southeast Community and Technical College in Harlan County, Kentucky, this article discusses how a commitment to place informs and shapes rural students' decisions around post-secondary education, career, and residence. Though some students connected advanced education with rural outmigration, other…

An evaluation of an Ohio professional development program for beginning rural principals interviewed and observed 23 principals and mentors in 3 study groups. Participants valued mentoring and networking activities, noting they mitigated professional isolation. Participants preferred "unofficial" activities focused on practical problems to the…

A study examined the influence of situated knowledge embedded in 17 rural preservice teachers' autobiographies on their perspectives on diversity and future classroom practices. Four themes emerged in interviews: situative cognition in rural contexts; cultural groups being together but existing apart; understanding group similarities and…

An elementary teacher education program was established in southeastern British Columbia (Canada) to meet staffing needs in six rural school districts by establishing a pool of teachers likely to remain in the area. A 5-year study of the first cohort of 22 teachers found that 20 held teaching jobs and 17 were still living in the area. (TD)

A year-long study of the interaction between a rural student and his first-year composition professor at an urban state university reveals the struggles of this nontraditional student with language forms and adaptation to academic culture. Universities must learn to recognize, acknowledge, and work within all students' potential for academic…

Interviews with 41 women from the coalfields of southwestern Virginia and eastern Kentucky indicate that traditional women devoted their lives to their families. Contemporary women who did not attend college identified with their mothers but wanted financial independence. Contemporary women who attended college identified with their fathers but…

Rural schools experience major problems in every aspect of personnel preparation in special education. Review examines what has been done and the problems faced by rural schools in the areas of traditional and nontraditional preservice programs, individual and program qualification mechanisms, personnel recruitment and retention, and retraining…

Rural graduate students in early intervention used case-study and ethnographic methods to record family-focused field experiences, thereby developing an understanding of family perspectives and personal theories about early intervention in rural settings. These personnel preparation processes help students engage in a lifelong process of…

Recent increases in cultural and linguistic diversity in Kansas have raised three challenges for educators, especially rural educators: geographic isolation, capacity building, and professional development. Describes innovative, nontraditional programs developed by Kansas State University to help educators meet these challenges, including distance…

Argues that the primary purpose of mass education in America--nation-building--is collapsing and that educational researchers must develop different commitments; among these are local purposes for education. Distinguishes rural (local) and cosmopolitan commitments; suggests readings and other means of preparation for rural educational research;…

The New England Association of Schools & Colleges' Rural Partnerships for Students' Success Project is a three-year project to improve equity and access to postsecondary education at four rural high schools. The project links institutions' ability to meet accrediting standards to efforts to raise student aspirations by changing school culture and…

A panel study of early childhood special educators in rural Florida identified problems in serving the needs of disabled children ages three to five related to rural ecology, family conditions, staff training, and educational programs and funding. Includes suggested modifications to current service programs that would improve service delivery to…

A search of Dissertation Abstracts International, 1989-93, identified 196 doctoral dissertations concerned with rural education. Dissertations were assigned to one or more topics and subtopics of the Rural Education Research and Development Menu. "Overall effectiveness of rural schools" received 121 of 248 assignments, followed by human resources,…

At the British Open University (a distance education institution), rural tutors working in remote areas of Scotland felt that professional isolation interfered with self-assessment and professional development. Describes action research into student and tutor perceptions of teaching and learning that provides a basis for reflective teaching and…

Multiple regression analysis of data from West Virginia school districts revealed that 41 percent of interdistrict differences in higher education enrollment rates was explained by percentage of disadvantaged students, percentage of students in college preparatory curriculum (strongly related to income and rurality), and student/teacher ratio.…